. NMT03-T1056
Volume III · Page 1056
| either as a principal; or ordered, or
abetted, took a consenting part in, or were connected with the execution or
carrying out of the Hitler NN scheme or plan. The defendants so participating
will be later discussed in the summation of the evidence. The Night and Fog decree originated with Hitler as a plan or scheme to combat alleged resistance movements against the German occupation forces but it was early extended by the Ministry of Justice to include offenses against the German Reich. Often the offenses had nothing to do with the security of the armed forces in the occupied territories. Many of them occurred after military operations had ceased and in areas where there were no military operations. The first secret decree of the Ministry of Justice for the execution or carrying out of the NN decree provided for: |
"1. The prosecution of criminal offenses against the Reich or; |
| It declared that the directive will be as a rule applicable to the seven above listed general types of offenses or crimes, including "Communist activity". The term "Communist activity" is general and political in nature. The evidence shows that political prisoners in occupied territories were tried and sentenced to death under the NN proceedings. Pertinent here with respect to the so-called resistance activities is the finding of the IMT that: |
"The local units of the Security Police and SD continued their work in the occupied territories after they had ceased to be an area of operations. The Security Police and SD engaged in widespread arrests of the civilian population of these occupied countries, imprisoned many of them under inhumane conditions, subjected them to brutal third degree methods, and sent many of them to concentration camps. Local units of the Security Police and SD were also involved in the shooting of hostages, the imprisonment of relatives, the execution of persons charged as terrorists, [and saboteurs without a trial], and the enforcement of the 'Nacht and Nebel' decrees under which persons charged with a type of offense believed to endanger the security of the occupying forces were either executed within a week or secretly removed to Germany without being permitted to communicate with their family and friends."* |
| Defendant Schlegelberger explained the fundamental purpose of the NN decree to be a deterrent "through cutting off of the prisoners from every contact with the outside world". He further explained "that the NN prisoners were expected and were to be |
* Trial of the Major War Criminals, op. cit., Volume 1, page 266.
